Anti-Abortion Groups Are Coming for Birth Control--Just as Reproductive Rights Activists Warned
(disturbing, extremely important read)
Anti-Abortion Groups Are Coming for Birth Control—Just as Reproductive Rights Activists Warned
8/17/2023 by Ansev Demirhan
Dark money anti-abortion and pay-to-play groups are predictably responding to the FDA’s over-the-counter birth control pill decision with disinformation.
Activists protest as guests arrive for the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s annual gala and fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum on Sept. 13, 2022. The group, and others like it, wage public and private campaigns against abortion access, as well as birth control access. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
In July, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter contraceptive pill, Opill (norgestrel). Opill is expected to be available for purchase online, in pharmacies, and convenience and grocery stores, without a prescription in early 2024. With barriers to reproductive healthcare increasing—especially for Black, Latino and poor people—and more than 19 million women in the U.S. living in “contraceptive deserts” without easy access to reproductive health clinics, Opill will be a vital tool in the fight for reproductive justice.
Dark money anti-abortion and pay-to-play groups are predictably responding to the FDA’s over-the-counter birth control pill decision with disinformation—deriding this basic action by the federal government to protect the right to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
Ahead of the FDA’s Opill decision, Hadley Heath Manning, a staffer at Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) and Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), published an op-ed in the New York Times where she purported to layout a universal “conservative” position on birth control. Most conservatives believe that birth control is not a “positive right,” she wrote, but a lesser desire, unworthy of legal protection—which she described as “a personal choice.” Manning failed to address how “personal choice”—regarding contraception or abortion—cannot exist in the absence of legal policies that protect access to make such “choices.” She also whitewashed the role that the pay-to-play group that pays her has played in dismantling the “personal choice” of millions of Americans regarding their reproductive health.
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Following the FDA’s decision, IWF’s Emma Posey Waters—who also works at the massive dark-money juggernaut, the Heritage Foundation—spread disinformation about the birth control pill: that increased access to birth control leads to increased abortions. However, multiple studies over the years have proven that access to birth control helps reduce abortion rates. The Heritage Foundation—with its history of opposing abortion and contraceptive access—has deep financial ties to the right-wing dark money pass-throughs called Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, which are led by an alum of other Koch-funded groups.
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Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, holds up a copy of the New York Times front page from June 24, 2022, as she speaks at a rally by anti-abortion activists and to mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v .Jackson Women’s Health, which erased federal protections for abortions. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Decades of evidence show progestin-only mini-pills, like Opill, are safe and between 93 to 99 percent effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy. Yet, Dr. Ingrid Skop, the director for medical affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s research arm called the Charlotte Lozier Institute, has also spread disinformation on the effectiveness of the over-the-counter contraceptive pill and falsely conflated the pill with abortifacients. In an interview, Skop—the same doctor who recently testified in support of Texas’ extreme anti-abortion law—claimed that there are safety concerns with Opill as an “abortifacient,” even though Opill is not an abortifacient. Its purpose is to stop pregnancy from occurring, not eliminate pregnancies. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA) has received millions of dollars over the years, with their most recent 990 filing showing an annual revenue of $16 million in 2021. The group has received significant funding from dark money pass-through groups that have been tied to the oil mogul Charles Koch.
Despite Koch’s claims of supporting reproductive rights, his network gave over $1.3 million from 2013-2017 to SBA, an anti-abortion group. SBA 990s reveal the money was given for “general support.” SBA has also been funded by dark money groups connected to Leonard Leo.
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True North’s Lisa Graves and Caitlin Mahoney contributed to this report.
https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/17/anti-abortion-pro-life-over-the-counter-birth-control-women/